Floating and Falling

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 8:34am by Emilie Temple & Ignatius
Edited on on Tue Jul 7th, 2020 @ 1:49pm

Mission: Into the Wild
Location: Rec Deck - "The Flying Pants"

A Mission Post by Emilie Temple & Ignatius
Mission: Into The Wild
Location: Rec Deck - "The Flying Pants"
Timeline:
Mon Dec 11th, 2017 @ 2:32pm


Emilie Temple was positively floating, she was sure of it. She wafted through the halls of the Pandora like a marigold leaf on the wind. Buoyed by the news of her pregnancy, and not quite ready to consider the reality of having another child, she was running on pure excitement and joy. Of course, she hadn't been able to find Nyx yet to tell him the news, but she still wasn't able to keep the smile off her face.

So distractedly happy, Emilie hadn't noticed where she was heading until she arrived, as she breezed into the doors of her old friend Ignatius' clothing store, recently re-named "The Flying Pants" for reasons that are best left unrepeated.

"Emilie, my darling!" Ignatius cried out from behind his counter. Eagerly throwing down this PADD, he waltzed over and immediately wrapped her up in a hug.

Receiving the hug with a laugh, Emilie cried "Iggy!"

"Hush girl, I won't let that nickname get around." The clothier warned with a bemused frown, "I will never forgive your husband for giving it to me."

Emilie giggled and gave Ignatius a sympathetic pat on his shoulder. She stood back for a second to look at him - of course he was impeccably dressed in a burnt orange linen shirt and black 3/4 length pants, brown leather oxfords with no socks, and tortoiseshell wayfarers hanging off his nose. His arm jangled as he threw his hands back to his hips, a pair of gold and silver bangles falling loosely around his right wrist. Anyone would have thought the man had come back from an afternoon on his yacht, rather than working in a clothing store on a starship. But that was Ignatius to a T.

"Orange will be the colour of spring." He declared, after noticing Emilie's approving eye across his attire. "You heard it here first, girl, don't you forget that."

Emilie considered the statement seriously, "I'll have to redecorate."

"You must." He responded just as intently, "If I see one more pale grey room with dark grey accents I will throw myself out a window!"

She let out a chuckle but then shook her head, "I think they've got forcefields on the windows. You'll just have to branch out into interior design."

"Don't tempt me." Ignatius responded with a tap of his nose, "Now, what can I do for you?"

"Well I just... Wait, I'm not interrupting a client am I?" Emilie asked, looking around the empty store. This place had a reputation for people - and items of clothing - appearing out of nowhere.

"Oh frack no," He laughed, as he moved back to his counter, "With all the drama happening lately, it has been a graveyard in here today. Turns out Starfleet officers don't like to shop when there's a crisis at hand. You need to tell that husband of yours that alien conflicts are bad for my business."

"I will tell him that." Emilie laughed, "Now, I wanted to get your help on a project. I need to... tell... Nyx some big news and I want to do it in a surprising and fun way."

Ignatius peered over his sunglasses at the woman for a long moment and then nodded, "About your baby?"

Emilie gasped in shocked and reached over the counter to smack him on his arm. "What? No! Well... yes, but how?"

"Honey, it's very rare that someone would come in here wanting to find a fun and surprising way to tell their partner they want a divorce." Ignatius responded with a haughty giggle. "So I did the math."

"I suppose," Emilie demurred, "But you won't tell him, will you? You're the only person to know besides Doctor Adaestron."

"Lips are sealed." Iggy replied, miming the act of locking his mouth together and throwing away the imaginary key. "By why the hush, hush? You've been through this before."

Emilie nodded and turned away for a moment, pretending to be fascinated in a turquoise cravat hanging around a mannequin. "The last time wasn't really the best of circumstances...."

[USS Wellington, Four years ago...]

There was a heavy silence in the Mess Hall of the Wellington, as the survivors of Lucis V huddled together on bunks and benches, wherever they could fit. An entire colony had been evacuated onto the starship after a fleet of rogue Cardassian fighters had razed their cities to the ground. Their homes, their families, their lives were burning down on the planet surface, while those who had been rescued sat in a confused daze - barely saying a word. Emilie could remember the smell of smoke that seemingly clung to the survivors like a constant reminder of the fiery hell they had escaped. Clothes, hair, and faces, all baring the charcoal reminder that they had been pulled from the burning wreckage of their world.

Sitting on a bunk in the corner, Nyx's arms were wrapped tightly around Emilie as he leaned against the wall; his face was a blank slate of emotionless fatigue. It had been a long day, the hardest fight he had ever experienced, and he just wanted to sleep. But he couldn't. His mind wouldn't let him, his heart still raced like a sprinter after a marathon. He remained staring into the one blank space in the room where he could just vacantly rest his gaze.

Emilie was settled into him, in the same state of restless exhaustion, but hers came from the traumatic upheaval that had occurred when Lucis fell - when her father lost his life. Her father had struggled to keep the city's shield generators running after heavy fire from the Cardassians. Despite his valiant struggle, even he couldn't stop the onslaught of the attack. He was killed, the shields failed, the city burned to the ground. No matter how many times she tried to replay it in her mind, or how simple the sequence of events seemed, she still couldn't quite make sense of it all. She was tired from crying, as she had sobbed uncontrollably in the hours since their rescue. She was experiencing a rare break between the waves of sadness that constantly overwhelmed her, but she knew another one would be coming soon.

It was only after Emilie shifted a little that Nyx began to notice there was something in her pocket that had been pushing into his leg. He must have noticed it before but was too tired to mention it, so he had just tolerated the dull discomfort. Now it was pressing harder into him and he had to move.

"What is that?" He asked quietly, as he shifted his leg slightly and reached down to pull out the offending object.

It was a small wooden doll, no bigger than a tricorder, a hand crafted child with a smiley face just barely visible in faded black paint. Nyx turned it over in his hand as he shifted back into position and held the doll out to show Emilie.

Slowly she looked up to the toy and smiled, her eyes brewing with tears again. "It was my father's."

Nyx leaned forward and kissed her on the side of her head, knowing the mention of his name would bring upon another spell of sadness. He wanted so desperately to be able to take away her pain and sorrow, but it was still fresh in their minds. Like the smell of smoke in the air, the grief was a constant presence.

"Did he make it for you?" He asked gently.

"No," Emilie whimpered, "My mother made it for him, and gave it to him when she found out she was pregnant with me. He's kept it ever since."

Nyx nodded and placed the doll into her hands and then wrapped his own around hers. "That's beautiful. I'm glad you have something to remember them by."

Emilie's tears were beginning to flow down her cheeks again. How desperately she wanted to reach out and speak to her father, to hug him once more, just to see his face one more time. After a moment, she took a breath, "I was going to bring it to dinner but then everything started happening and I guess I just forgot I had it on me."

Again, Nyx could only nod in silence, trying to find something helpful to say, "Lucky it stayed in your pocket then. Despite everything."

The pair could only stare at the doll, both in their restrained heartache. Emilie sighed, "We'll have to do it properly when we're back on Earth."

Her husband smiled and kissed her cheek, before looking away to stare into the distance again. He couldn't imagine what would happen once they got back to Earth. There would be inquiries, hearings, testimonies. The Federation would want to know how they lost a prosperous colony and....

"Do what?" He suddenly spoke.

"What?" Emilie asked, straining her neck to look back at him with confusion.

"You said we'll have to do it properly when we're back on Earth?" Nyx inquired, his eyes squinted. "Do what properly?"

"Oh," Emilie sighed as she held up the doll casually, "For me to give you this."

"Right." Nyx said simply. There was a noticeable thud in his mind. A long drop that had been coming for the last few minutes and it just now landed with a crash. "You mean... you were bringing the doll to dinner... because you were going to tell me you're pregnant?"

Emilie's eyes widened, and she quietly replied "Yes."

"You're pregnant?" Nyx asked, still not sure whether he should smile or not.

She looked to him with those sad blue eyes, still puffy from all the tears, but with that little spark of excitement over the announcement. "Yes, Nyx. We're having a baby."

"Whoa." Was all Nyx could say.

"Yeah." Emilie replied, just as breathlessly.

The two stared down at the doll once again, Nyx's hands now carefully tracing over the outline of the smooth wooden toy, his other hand wrapping tightly around Emilie. They wanted to laugh, and shriek, and talk excitedly about the news. But the smell of their burning former home still lingered in the air, they were still surrounded by the ashen faces of the refugees from their destroyed home. They could only hold each other; silently.

[Present Day]

Emilie shook her head as she finished her story, and Ignatius immediately came around the counter to hug her tightly again. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Emilie replied embarrassed, as she wiped away a tear. "It's been four years but it still gets me like it was yesterday. You know, when we got to Earth and back with Nyx's family, we were able to celebrate somewhat. But we didn't get that moment, you know?"

"Of course," Ignatius nodded, as he stood back and considered the proposal, "Well, you can't just give him the wooden doll again. That's been done. But if you send me a picture, I may be able to have it printed onto something.... A t-shirt? No! A baby blanket? You could give it to him, he opens it up and sees the doll and voila."

Emilie cooed at the thought, "That would be sweet. And the baby would have its first blanket."

Ignatius was known for doing men's clothing - dapper suits and tailored pants. But his education and his passion were hand stitched items that were completely unique and special to whomever owned them. He longed for the opportunity to actually create something again.

"Yes!" Iggy replied excitedly as he clapped his hands. "What about colour? Do you know the gender?"

"Too soon, I think." Emilie replied with a shrug, "On my next scan, at twelve weeks, we should know."

Ignatius frowned and he looked down at his shirt, "What about orange?"

Emilie laughed, "Well I've heard it's the colour of spring."

Ignatius chuckled too and popped his arm around Emilie, "To the fabric room!" He declared.

The two walked triumphantly off towards the workroom and once again, Emilie was floating.

OFF